Ridge Prepares Terror Alert System

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, March 9, 2002

Homeland security chief Tom Ridge said Sunday he is preparing to roll out a five-stage, multicolored alert system that will allow federal authorities to more precisely warn the public about domestic terrorism dangers.

The system is meant to as a response to criticism that the four broad terror alerts issued by the federal government since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have alarmed the public while providing little or no useful information.

The new system will assign colors based on the seriousness of the threat, but Ridge said that he would not divulge "the colors of the rainbow" to be used in the system until a formal release this week.

A number of reports, including from Time and Newsweek magazines on Sunday, said it will begin with green, the lowest status, and move to blue, yellow, orange and red as the perceived danger intensified.

An announcement could come as soon as Tuesday.

Ridge said the White House was working to build consensus among federal, state and local governments on the system and guidelines once an alert was issued.

"With five levels of threat, we will want five levels of preparedness," Ridge said on "Fox News Sunday."

Ridge sidestepped questions about whether the public will be directly informed of alerts under the new system.

"We've discovered since nine-eleven, even when you send out (alerts) through the FBI, ultimately it becomes in the public domain," said Ridge. "But public safety is the primary purpose behind this, so the public is certainly going to know."